Construction Is Moving Fast

Hi, Friends,

How are you? I hope you are well. 

We just finished the third full week of construction on our house in East Texas. 

Here is a quick recap if you are new. Bill and I have always wanted a weekend home. We found one in 2020 and began spending most of our weekends at this little country home. We called it our five year plan. 

At the end of the five years, Bill would be eligible for retirement.  If we liked the country and the area, we would move permanently to East Texas. At some point in the second year, I reached a hard, "No!" because of the scorpions and a terrible smell caused by something one of the neighbors was doing.  We'd even contacted the Texas Commission of Environmental Quality to help resolve it. It has since been stopped and over the course of the last two years I've felt good about moving. I wanted to downsize but I didn't want to sacrifice many of my pretty things in order to move into this house. We needed more square footage, so we began brainstorming and consulting a house plan company to help us. The plans were ready in April and construction ramped up with the rough in plumbing and the concrete pour in early to mid July. 

Construction began the very next week with a new roof for the existing house. The work started three weeks ago on the enclosed porches and the addition which is the most impactful.  I'll do a photo dump week by week so you can see how fast it has moved.  I had very low expectations concerning speed so we are left making decisions faster than we thought. 

Week 1

The old screen porch and carport began getting framed. 

The large beams and trusses were done for the new screen porch. 

The plywood and wrap went on by the end of the third day. 

We could finally translate the plans into visual spaces. 

On the fourth day, the framing of the addition had begun but rain halted much progress. 

It was at this point that I realized that this was going to be done sooner than the timeline I'd created in my head. 

Bill was on site and worked on dismantling my bathroom in the early morning and evenings. 

Week 2

The area of the old closet and shower was going to be opened up to form a sitting area in our bedroom. 

When we got the first set of plans, the new bathroom and closets were bigger than the bedroom. That just made no sense to me. On the second set, we had them opened it all up. When we met with the framer/carpenter the first time, he said that he might need to run the new beam and that it would hang as low as the door opening.
"Nope!" That defeated some of the purpose for the sitting area as I was giving up a closet. The old shower could have been turned into linen storage. You know I love my linens. 

Once the floor guy said he could patch the floor and I'd already fallen in love with the sitting area idea, I said that we should do it. In the meantime, the carpenter had figured out that we could have room for HVAC and a beam in the attic. 

I was getting my sitting room and with no beam! I cannot wait for the finished sitting nook. 

The new sitting area in our room. 

They continued framing the addition and the rooms started to take shape. 

They installed the windows in all the new spaces last Saturday. 

The green door will be removed and the old house will be open to the enclosed portion.

The light is pouring in!

Week 3 

The plumber came to remove some lines and install the new ones for the new bathroom. 

We ran into a snag with the old water heater placement but it wasn't an old water heater. We just put it in last spring before we planned this addition. This was a sore spot for me and I almost burst a gasket. 

The 17 year old water heater needed to be replaced. It had no pan or drain to the outside and it was almost rusted through. At the time, I'd suggested a tankless and was shot down. All along in the planning, I said that we should plan around the water heater and I was ignored. I could have made it work from a design standpoint if the plumber and carpenter could make it work from a practical standpoint. I was overruled by all (including some of our new neighbors) so now we are going with a tankless that can be put in the attic. The propane guy is coming back out to replace lines he just installed in order to accommodate at tankless water heater.

 Aye, yi, yi! 

I give up. This project is driven by Bill in order to give me the house that we both would like so that he can live in the country. He's worked hard his whole adult life so I just needed to let it go and economize where I can. 

I hope that he can find a good new home for the water heater. I will feel good if we can give it to someone. 

Now, let's get back to the addition. 

The old potty closet doorway was framed and we will access the potty from the new bathroom. 

Framing to close up the potty closet.

They opened up the new doorway into the potty closet. 

They framed the new entrance into the bathroom. 

Let's talk about siding. 

The enclosure and the addition needed siding. Bill did not like the existing siding that was on the house and wanted going to go with something better on the new portions. I was adamant that the existing house and the new additions matched so that it looked like it was always there. I thought we should stick with what we had. Bill did not want to do that and he and the carpenter overruled me from a maintenance standpoint. The new siding should be maintenance free for the length of our stay in this house. It will be board and batten so it will have an updated look as well.  

The old windows have been replaced to match the new windows. These are such an upgrade from what we had but we didn't splurge on them. 

They roofed the new portions of the house. 

They also did some facia and soffit work but that wasn't exciting enough to photograph. 

Haha. 

Bill is the general contractor so he's been living out there during the week. The cat and I have stayed home. I went out once for the day to meet with the electrician. In the meantime, I clean out drawers and do a little touch up work to get ready to sell our house in town. I pick out finishes which he approves or picks up when he is home on the weekends.

 

I share the struggles and snags because that is the truth of renovation. Stuff is going to happen and there will be surprises and setbacks. I don't want to make it sound like I'm dissing Bill. He is doing a great job coordinating subs while he still works his 9-5. He is the one living in the mess and chaos. I didn't even get a chance to get there to pack everything up because of the speed. He has done all the demo stuff as well. He wants to take care of everything for this house from a maintenance standpoint before he retires so that there won't be annoying repairs after he retires and we move. Some of this money we would have had to spend anyway. Now, it will all be done before we move in. I'm just thankful we didn't redo my bathroom after we bought the house since it is gone! 

That is all for now. 

The next week won't be as exciting. 

The HVAC is going in and they will continue with the siding. 

Bill will be moving out to the cabin until the air conditioner is turned back on. 

See you when I see you. 

Katie